Concerns Over Columbia Police Chief Finalists

Columbia, SC (WLTX) - The finalists for the new chief come from as far as Colorado and West Virginia, but it's what is in Bryan Norwood's past that has Councilman Cameron Runyan asking questions.

"I think there are a lot of question marks that need to be answered," said Runyan.

Last year Norwood resigned as the police chief in Richmond, Virginia. His department made headlines in how they handled a case for singer Chris Brown.

Some called into question his department's handling of the singers community service hours.

Now, Runyan is now questioning how a chief that resigned under pressure made the final cut vs. interim Columbia Police Chief Santiago.

"There is a lot of question as to why we got the five candidates we got, I am sure they are all wonderful people and good in their own right, but if the current chief was good enough to run the department for a year and a half in an interim capacity, why isn't he good enough to make the final five."

Search Committee chair Robert Bolchoz says he is confident that they picked the best five for the job.

"Let me say this first of all we have not picked the police chief so each of those five individuals will be subjected to questioning by citizens, committees, city council, other interest groups, staff at the police department that type of thing," said Bolchoz.

Bolchoz says the finalists were determined by which candidates got four out of five votes or a unanimous vote.

Santiago received less than four resulting in him not making the cut.

There have also been a lot of rumors about how the process has played out and for those reasons Runyan is calling for the City Manager to start a new search.

"The allegation that there was a lack of integrity in this process that number one we need to halt everything immediately and then number two we need to start over and engage a national search firm that has expertise in doing this and then begin the process over again," said Runyan.